Is Your Farm Business Ready for Spring?
4 minute read.
To read more about how to prepare your business operations for spring, download our free eBook: “Spring Checklist for the Business of Farming.”
If you are a rancher, your preparations for springtime at your Farm will certainly vary significantly from that of a microgreens producer. That being said, there are a few key action steps all Farmers should take this spring—no matter what you are growing—to ensure success from a business operations standpoint. Below, we have outlined an approach to clarify your priorities as you ramp up Farm operations this spring.
It’s fairly cut and dry—there are clear steps you can take to understand customer expectations.
Who are Your Target Customers?
Before you can know how to invest in your marketing, you have to know who you are trying to reach. Consider the following:
Where do your ideal customers live?
How old are they?
What forms of media do they spend time reading?
Are they getting their news primarily from their town’s daily paper?
Do they spend more time on Facebook? (Hint: Facebook has the average consumer’s attention for a shocking amount of time each day).
The point is, it’s worth investigating who exactly your target customer is so that you know how to reach them.
What’s Your Strategy?
Odds are, you’ve got your “offline” markets covered. These include, as examples, your physical presence at a Farmstand, direct advertising in your local newspaper or word of mouth in your community. The question is, how effective are these traditional modalities of selling in hitting your sales goals? These markets narrow your range of possibility to the customers who are passing through that day. Not to mention that people just plain don’t read the newspaper like they used to—most news is read online. Consider the high percentage of buyers who not only want to buy online, but who actually expect to buy online. So what’s your current online sales strategy? Do you have a website that processes online orders? If you are selling online, your customers can order from you around the clock.
Future customers want to purchase your quality food online.
How’s Your Order System?
If you are not yet selling online, you’re probably spending time managing orders coming in from a variety of sources (e.g. phone calls, emails, texts). Of course, this is a time suck. You have better things to do with your time than sift through and organize customer details one-by-one. Think about how you might streamline the current systems you have in place. It’s important to effectively track customer details, manage and update your inventory so buyers know exactly how much you have available, and that you offer scheduling options for delivery or pickup.
Do You Have Support?
Everyone needs to outsource something. For you, it may be best to hire someone to design your website or to provide an order tracking system. At Barn2Door, we are a full service business for Farmers looking to improve online presence and convenience for their customers. We build websites and power online ordering, and generally aim to cover every base to help you simplify your sales process. We are responsive to the thousands of customers we serve, so we continue to develop and debut new product releases year round. What system could you use help with at the moment? Request a demo with us if you’d like to learn more. Help is available to support you as you streamline your operations and grow your business.
This is only a fast overview of what to consider to maximize your Farm’s success this spring. Download “Spring Checklist for the Business of Farming” to get our complete recommendations on clarifying your Farm’s strategy.